How can marketers satisfy this unquenchable desire for new content? One technology that helps tackle the need for developing and delivering a constant stream of personalized content to customers is natural language generation (NLG).

January/February 2016 Issue

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According to Gartner, Inc., web content management (WCM) software has outgrown being only a tool for creating web content. In addition to serving content, WCM vendors have set their sights on helping companies manage customer experiences and are delivering software to help them realize that ambition. This shift is due to the fact that consumers are harder to reach and more discerning, according to Mark Floisand, VP of product marketing for Sitecore.

Apple is widely credited with introducing the smartphone, and there is no doubt that its iPhone took the world by storm in 2007. But IBM actually had the first smartphone--the Simon Personal Communicator--which was introduced in 1992. Unfortunately, it was just a tad expensive: $899 with a service contract. Because few are even aware of this precursor to Apple's successful launch of the iPhone, it's hardly relevant--except for the fact that Apple and IBM continue to duke it out for dominance in the smartphone (and tablet) space.

Remember when the digital content industry was convinced that audiences would never pay for content as long as they could get it for free? Gloom and doom were common among publishers that found demand for their traditional content formats declining, as more and more people went online to find information. And, yes, some publishers have failed. Others, however, are thriving in this new environment.

With the release of a series of algorithmic updates over the past few years, Google has upended the internet landscape and the world of website owners. Suddenly, website owners discovered that they could no longer drive traffic through the use of generic, bland, and repetitive content. Suddenly, quality content was king once again. Content mills--such as Demand Media--quickly gave way to sites such as Contently and content marketing firms willing to pay top prices for unique, high-quality content specifically created to address niche audience needs.

With several obvious trends standing out, determining the direction the digital marketing winds are blowing isn't exactly rocket science. But the work of actually marketing a product or service sure feels as if it is. Despite the light-speed pace of advancing technology, plotting the launch and trajectory of an emarketing missile targeted at consumers is increasingly complicated.

"Today's users seek online video content on the screen of their choice. They should be able to access the video anywhere and virtually anytime they desire," says Matt Smith, chief evangelist for Anvato. "The models may vary, but every screen is the new normal." The new normal also includes more "snackable content" in the form of shorter videos that cater to smaller consumer attention spans. To wit: Snapchat, which limits user videos to 10 seconds or less, now has 6 billion video views per day.

Sure, posting trip photos, tweeting links, and networking with old co-workers is fun. But online citizens want to tap into the pulse of the world around them, belong to a community, and be recognized. "Social media has evolved into a personal online identity. Before, it was used to connect with friends and update your status," says Jesse Till, social media coordinator for Chatter Buzz Media. "Now, it defines a persona. It's a chance for a person to express and broadcast themselves to the world."

After years of go-go growth, the ebook market has matured into a slower-growth industry. However, slower growth doesn't mean that substantive changes are occurring. "The days of triple-digit growth are probably behind us," says Tina Jordan, VP at the Association of American Publishers (AAP). "Ebooks have been launched and are here to stay. Growth trends are typically incremental, with sales generally driven by bestsellers in all formats."

While the overarching goal of content analytics--to capture digital content and then apply business intelligence (BI) in order to glean actionable insights--has stayed relatively fixed in recent years, the continued proliferation in variety and volume of content means that both vendors and users of content analytics solutions must move at a brisk clip to even stay in place. In a 2015 industry survey called "Content Analytics: Automating Processes and Extracting Knowledge," conducted by AIIM (Association for Information and Image Management), the majority of the 238 respondents felt there was real business insight to be gained if they got content analytics right.

When the University of California-Berkeley's (UC-Berkeley) School of Information asked 43 industry professionals for their definition of "Big Data" in 2014, it received 43 different answers. Most answers touched on the "three V" parameters of Big Data popularized by Gartner, Inc.: high-volume, high-velocity, and high-variety information assets requiring advanced forms of information processing to fully unlock their potential.

Columns

I am the first to admit that, in the digital age, it is easy to play fast and loose with attribution. We are all guilty of it sometimes. For instance, when most of your writing is for the web, you get so used to linking to an article-rather than meticulously naming it and its author-that when you are writing for print, you might forget how to let your readers know exactly where a quote or statistic came from without the help of a hyperlink. This isn't a scholarly journal--no one wants to read footnotes, least of all me--but it's still important to give credit where credit it is due. It's one of those gray areas in which some people expect precise attribution for every fact and figure, and the rest of us are happy with a good faith effort that says, "This came from somewhere else." But lately, I've seen some plagiaristic antics that make my head spin--all in the name of content curation.